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Personal Care at Home Bill

The Secretary of State shakes his head, but the impact assessment makes that clear. At paragraph 5.21, it states:""The recipients of free personal care are believed to fall into the bottom, 2nd and 3rd quintiles because even the wealthiest older people (who represent the main beneficiary group) are in the middle of the income distribution of society at large."" In other words, the wealthiest elderly people are not the wealthiest people in society, but they are the main beneficiaries of the Bill. I find it bizarre that a Labour Government should choose to use available public funds to benefit most the wealthiest older people, given that there are many others with acute care needs. The conclusion must be that that is not the best use of available public funds. I am also concerned that the Bill has been oversold by the Government. The Minister again quoted a figure of 400,000 for the total number of people to benefit from free care, and that of course includes those who would benefit from reablement. However, when one looks at the number of new recipients of free care at home, the real figure is 110,000. The Government do not use that figure at all in their pronouncements. The Government say that the Bill protects the care of those currently receiving free care, but it is hard to envisage circumstances in which those in critical need who are currently benefiting from care on a means-tested basis would lose that care. Therefore, it is somewhat disingenuous to argue that there is some great benefit for that group. The new recipients of free care will total just 110,000. As the hon. Member for South Thanet made clear, that is a relatively small group, compared with the total number of people with care needs who will have to be supported in any final reform of the system. Finally, I find that it strains the use of language to describe this Bill as a bridge to reform. As a sceptic, the hon. Member for South Thanet made the best possible case for supporting the Bill but, whatever happens to it, we must all be committed to a more fundamental reform of the system. I think that we are all agreed on that. I want to repeat the case that I made on Second Reading. In this pre-election period, there is a real and overwhelming need for all parties to put aside their differences and to join in a process charged specifically with building and achieving consensus on this matter. I know that that would be supported massively by those groups outside Parliament who represent people with real care needs. Such a consensus would have the benefit of facilitating reform in the next Parliament, and it would also put pressure on whoever wins the next election to ensure that reform takes place. The hon. Member for South Thanet is absolutely right to say that the urgency of completing the reform process is overwhelming. We must not allow this Bill to delay that.